UCLA quarterback Kevin Prince wasn't surprised that new Bruin coach Jim Mora was enraged when the team skipped Tuesday's practice to go a showing of "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" under the guise of extending a UCLA tradition known as going "over the wall."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU0SEeQJy0c

"I figured he would be," Prince said. "That's good."

Prince is among a group of players who welcome Mora, seeing the new boss an agent of change that they had tried, unsuccessfully, to implement under Rick Neuheisel.

Does Coach Rick Neuheisel have to beat USC to keep his job? It will be the elephant in the Coliseum when UCLA takes the field on Saturday.

Neuheisel, amid speculation that he could be fired as soon as next week depending on how the Bruins fare this weekend, said Wednesday he doesn't think the USC game is a must-win as far as his job is concerned.

“I don't,” Neuheisel said. “I feel like I got to do my best every day. That's what I do. I come to work, I enjoy coming to work, I love coaching the kids, I like the staff. We're going to keep doing our best every day. All that other stuff is on someone else's desk.”

That desk belongs to athletic director Dan Guerrero, who said in October he is not in favor of in-season coaching changes. With a loss Saturday, UCLA would be eligible for a bowl game if it doesn't still reach the Pac-12 title game (by virtue of a Utah loss to Colorado) and lose again to fall to 6-7.

In 2006, then-UCLA coach Karl Dorrell was under similar scrutiny in his fourth year heading into the crosstown tilt. He was retained after the Bruins shocked No. 2 USC, 13-9, spoiling the Trojans' bid to play in the BCS title game.

UCLA saved its best for last this past Saturday, earning its first blowout victory in its final game at the Rose Bowl in 2011. Where does a 45-6 beatdown of Colorado leave the Bruins and Coach Rick Neuheisel heading into this weekend's regular season finale at USC?

Here are my top five observations:

1. Silent moments loud as a crack of thunder

After its biggest victory of the season (in terms of margin of victory), UCLA's locker room was very, very quiet. That said everything. I can't tell you how surprised I was to find half the players already dressed and gone by the time we'd wrapped up with Neuheisel. They're typically there longer even when they get blown out, which is always much shorter than if they win, much less win in resounding fashion. As I noted in my notebook, it was a big party in the Rose Bowl locker room two years ago after the Bruins clinched a bowl berth and won their sixth game of the season the week before playing USC. This year's team seems to have a totally different mindset.

Freshman quarterback Brett Hundley and freshman receiver Devin Lucien are thought to be the future of UCLA football. Coach Rick Neuheisel said he's trying to figure out whether the future should begin Saturday against Cal at the Rose Bowl.

Just two weeks ago Hundley and Lucien were near-locks to redshirt this season. But an injury to quarterback Richard Brehaut and suspensions to four receivers has left the Bruins thin at both positions.

Neuheisel said he considered using Hundley, currently Kevin Prince's backup with Brehaut recovering from a broken leg, in the Arizona game this past Thursday. The Bruins scored a season-low 12 points and fell behind 42-7 by halftime.

“In that kind of game, I just didn't think it was the right thing to do in terms of the rest of the year,” Neuheisel said during a Sunday night teleconference. “I think when you decide to use Brett Hundley, you got to commit to doing it the rest of the time, at least in a package.”

Neuheisel, who had hoped to redshirt Lucien given the Bruins' eight scholarship receivers, called Lucien's situation a “family decision.” UCLA is down to four receivers for the Cal game after the Pac-12 served Taylor Embree, Randall Carroll, Shaq Evans and Ricky Marvray with one-game suspensions for their actions in the benches-clearing brawl with the Wildcats.

The final scoreboard this past Saturday read: Stanford 45, UCLA 19. Moments after the loss, Coach Rick Neuheisel scurried about the locker room and encouraged several players to believe they “are not far away.”

“I know there's demoralization that follows defeat,” Neuheisel said Tuesday. “But it was important to me for them to realize we're going back to work, fix the things we can fix and we're going to get to play next Saturday.

“I wanted them to realize all was not lost. The game was gone but the season is still there.”

Coaches and players seemed to have taken his message to heart, as they have been quick to point out they have seven games left and they trailed 17-7 at halftime and 24-13 late in the third quarter to probably the best team they will face all season.

“I've never seen us as close to being that great team as we were on Saturday night,” quarterback Richard Brehaut said. “We were playing with the No. 4 team in the country. We just need to keep building.”

If you're like Rick Neuheisel, you too are probably wondering what happened to 5 Observations. We apologize, we were experiencing a blog malfunction Monday.

Here are my five observations from UCLA's 27-19 victory at Oregon State on Saturday:

1. Let Richard Bre-throw

I understand why Rick Neuheisel might be a bit hesitant (paranoid) to let Richard Brehaut chuck the ball all over the field. Three years ago Kevin Craft set a school record with 20 interceptions. Two years ago Kevin Prince and Brehaut combined to throw nine interceptions (to just eight touchdowns). Last year they combined for 12 picks and nine scores.

Anthony Barr's touchdown with 6:15 in the fourth quarter sealed UCLA's 27-19 victory at Oregon State. The Bruins played as if they had won it in the first half.

Barr scored on a 1-yard run to give UCLA an eight-point lead. Oregon State, after blocking the extra point, had a chance to tie the game but the ensuing drive was stalled by the Bruins defense at the UCLA 22-yard line.

The Beavers rally started at the end of the first half when Jordan Poyer returned a punt 85 yards for a touchdown to make it 21-10. The Beavers made it 21-19 on the final play of the third quarter when Sean Mannion hit Jordan Bishop for a 45-yard touchdown.

After three quarters of conservative play-calling, UCLA went for it on fourth-and-3 from the OSU 48 on its next possession. Derrick Coleman was stopped inches short. The Bruins defense responded, holding OSU on a fourth-and-1 at the UCLA 34. The Bruins then drove down the field for their final score.

UCLA took a 7-3 lead when receiver Taylor Embree came out of a crowd to haul in a 22-yard touchdown. It was set up by a Richard Brehaut bomb to Josh Smith for 62 yards. An interception by Sean Westgate set up the Bruins' next score. UCLA ran on six of the next seven plays, capped off by Brehaut fooling the OSU defense on a 5-yard keeper to make it 14-3.